Star Wars movies should honor past, forge future

By LINDELL KAY Daily News Staff

Published: Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 04:07 PM.

So fans who know about the Star Wars story only through the six movies don’t know that Chewbacca is dead; Han and Leia Solo had three children, two of whom died as young adults. Luke married an imperial assassin and they had a son together. They named him Ben after Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Tatooine nickname. Luke’s wife later died at the hands of one of the Solo children who had become a Sith Lord.

The stories are rich with drama and action and blend into an overarching space opera tapestry.

Now the 800-pound Wookiee in the room is whether the new Star Wars movies, which begin in 2015, will include such complicated storylines or wipe the slate clean. Either choice is bound to upset a large group of fans. But it’s a can of space worms the new Star Wars movies will have to open.

I have conceived of a third option. JJ Abrams, picked by Disney to direct Episode
VII
, could set the movie about three decades after “Return of Jedi.” That would allow time for all the events in the Expanded Universe to have occurred. The new movies could allude to such events while not having to address them directly.

The movies could focus on new Jedi Knights (Luke created a new order) with Luke in the Yoda role of sage Jedi Master. And I fully expect R2-D2 and C-3PO to be present as they have been in all six previous episodes.

Of course, Wookiees are a long-lived species, so at some point someone is going to either have to explain what happened to him or ignore years of novels and other works. It’s a balancing act that will either be a huge success or a giant failure.

Based on his 2009 “Star Trek,” which I contend is the greatest sci-fi movie of all time; I think Abrams is the man for the job.

He died saving Han Solo’s youngest son in the 1999 novel “Vector Prime” penned by science fiction savant R.A. Salvatore.

The death of the Millennium Falcon’s copilot isn’t news to those who enjoy the Star Wars Expanded Universe: a collection of films, books, cartoons, comic books and video games that supplement, explore and explain the six movie episodes.

The EU isn’t just a few stories with a passing connection to the core material. Unlike most entertainment franchises — including Star Trek — in which one medium is considered more important than the rest, Star Wars has always treated every story whether in written form or motion picture as relevant.

For instance, the concept of Coruscant, the city-planet capital of the Star Wars galaxy, was first presented in a novel and later incorporated into the prequels. There are many other examples including a Twi’Lek Jedi Knight first created for a comic book then showing up in episodes II and III.

It’s such broad, overlapping continuity that draws me to fictional universes like Star Wars and Marvel Comics — both now owned by Disney as result of shrewd business decisions.

So fans who know about the Star Wars story only through the six movies don’t know that Chewbacca is dead; Han and Leia Solo had three children, two of whom died as young adults. Luke married an imperial assassin and they had a son together. They named him Ben after Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Tatooine nickname. Luke’s wife later died at the hands of one of the Solo children who had become a Sith Lord.

The stories are rich with drama and action and blend into an overarching space opera tapestry.

Now the 800-pound Wookiee in the room is whether the new Star Wars movies, which begin in 2015, will include such complicated storylines or wipe the slate clean. Either choice is bound to upset a large group of fans. But it’s a can of space worms the new Star Wars movies will have to open.

I have conceived of a third option. JJ Abrams, picked by Disney to direct Episode VII, could set the movie about three decades after “Return of Jedi.” That would allow time for all the events in the Expanded Universe to have occurred. The new movies could allude to such events while not having to address them directly.

The movies could focus on new Jedi Knights (Luke created a new order) with Luke in the Yoda role of sage Jedi Master. And I fully expect R2-D2 and C-3PO to be present as they have been in all six previous episodes.

Of course, Wookiees are a long-lived species, so at some point someone is going to either have to explain what happened to him or ignore years of novels and other works. It’s a balancing act that will either be a huge success or a giant failure.

Based on his 2009 “Star Trek,” which I contend is the greatest sci-fi movie of all time; I think Abrams is the man for the job.

Contact Daily News Senior Reporter Lindell Kay at 910-219-8455 or lindell.kay@jdnews.com. Follow him on Twitter and friend him on Facebook @ 1lindell.